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French railway chief shares major update on paralysed train networks and resumption of services

Posted on by Vaseline

Paris:

France’s national railway company announced on Sunday that damage caused by saboteurs who paralysed the train network just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games had been repaired, with normal services set to resume on Monday.

Train traffic on the main line west of Paris was already running “almost normally” and “three out of four” high-speed TGV trains were running on the main line north of the capital, “without any increase in journey times”, operator SNCF said on Sunday.

It is still unclear who carried out the three attacks on strategic points of the railway infrastructure on the night of Thursday to Friday, or whether they were deliberately planned to disrupt the opening spectacle of the Games later on Friday.

Tens of thousands of train passengers struggled on Friday and Saturday with two days of cancelled and delayed trains, while 800,000 travellers were due to go on summer holidays.

“Thanks to the exceptional commitment of SNCF Network staff, who have been working continuously since Friday morning, repairs to all high-speed trains affected by the sabotage attacks have now been fully completed,” the operator said.

“The tests have been completed and the train lines can now operate normally again.

“There will be no more disruptions from Monday morning,” the company said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the carefully planned nighttime attacks. Maintenance workers have thwarted a fourth.

Searching for perpetrators

A source close to the Paris justice system, which has opened an investigation, said all the attacks were carried out by “the same entity”.

A statement signed by “an unexpected delegation” was sent to several news outlets, expressing support for the sabotage and criticizing the Olympics for being a “celebration of nationalism” and the oppression of peoples by nation states.

However, sources close to the investigation said it was merely an expression of support and not an actual claim of responsibility. It gave no details of the attacks and said it was “nothing particularly serious”.

“We have discovered a number of elements that make us think that we will soon know who is responsible for the sabotage of the Olympic Games, but also for part of the French people’s holiday,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 television on Saturday.

French authorities are on high alert for a possible terrorist attack during the Games, which run until August 11.

During the Olympic Games, tens of thousands of police officers and soldiers are deployed for security.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published via a syndicated feed.)

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